A Few Things of Note

It snowed last night. Only about an inch, but it will make my children happy. They, like all children, are really hoping we'll have snow on Christmas.

I have to drive one son to the dentist this morning. Although I'm not much looking forward to the 200 miles I will spend in the car today, it will give me the opportunity to buy the gifts two boys are supposed to have for their class gift exchanges. I was just given the suggested gift ideas yesterday, which means no time to get anything ordered online and delivered. My choices for gift-buying today are Tractor Supply, Dollar General, and the grocery store. I can work with that.

I went to our staff Christmas party last night and I brought this maple popcorn. Holy cow, is it good. 

I had to put the finished product out of sight on top of the refrigerator so I wouldn't keep grabbing a few pieces every time I walked by it.

I tripled the recipe, because six cups of popcorn doesn't really go that far*. I also added a full half teaspoon of salt, instead of a few pinches. The recipe as written will make something like caramel corn. If you add more salt to it, it makes something like kettle corn, which I like much better.

Using the dark maple syrup works so well for this. So much flavor.

It was, I must admit, a little bit of a pain. One of these days I should probably get a candy thermometer for things like this, so I'm not messing around with bowls of ice water to determine a "soft ball." Also, I decided halfway through that I didn't have nearly enough, so I was popping popcorn while making the syrup. Also also, I made so much, there was just a lot of bulk to be finding bowls and pans for.

Worth it, though. I would recommend it for any party you might be attending this season. It would also be very handy to make and put in little bags for any larger groups of people you might need gifts for, like neighbors or co-workers.

That's all my notes for today. Have a lovely day.

* It doesn't go far with my family, that is. A single recipe would have been adequate for my party contribution, but there was no way I was getting out of the house without leaving some of this for my family to eat while I was gone. They can eat a lot of popcorn. Especially popcorn liberally drizzled with maple syrup and butter.